Provoked Incident at Plettenberg Bay, South Africa:
15 year old angler was bitten by an approx. 2 meter Sandtiger shark (Carcharias taurus)
while trying to release it.
Victim suffered injuries to his left leg/knee (required 45 stitches).

-----------------

45 stitches after shark attack
12/12/2008 09:52 - (SA)

Luke Parker talks about being bitten by a shark.

luke_parker.jpg (19.91 KiB) Viewed 9496 times

Port Elizabeth - A 15-year-old boy was bitten by a ragged tooth shark after a long battle between his friend and the shark.

Luke Parker from Port Elizabeth received 45 stitches after the incident at Plettenberg Bay.

Luke and two friends were fishing on Wednesday evening, when his friend, Guy Moorecraft, got a bite. Guy struggled for about two hours to get the shark to shore.

Finally the shark which weighed about 100kg pulled Guy from the rocks into the shallow water. The fishing line - which can carry up to 40kg - broke.

Guy's two friends, Luke and Ricardo do Pinero - all are 15 and pupils at Grey High School - quickly jumped in after him.

Grabbed tail fin

Guy grabbed the shark's tail fin and the shark swung to the right and got hold of Luke's legs and lower body.

Guy was scared the shark would pull Luke into the deep sea. "I immediately bent over and tried to pull the shark's jaws from Luke's leg."

Luke finally managed to free himself and ran to the beach, where paramedics from the National Sea Rescue Institute took him to the NSRI station for treatment. "I didn't really feel much pain, because I was too shocked," said Luke from his parents' home in Port Elizabeth.

"Only once I saw the blood running down my leg, did it become painful."

The shark disappeared into the waves.

'I won't go after a shark in the water again'

"I wouldn't say I'm now scared of sharks, but I won't go after a shark in the water again," said Luke.

"We saw the shark lying there in the water (about half-a-metre deep). He didn't look that big."

Ray Farnham, NSRI station commander at Plettenberg Bay, who happened to be at the same beach after a training session, saw the boys at around 21:30.

They had at that stage been struggling with the shark for about two hours.

"I stood watching the guy and thought: the thing is going to bite you!" said Farnham.

According to Farnham, the incident went to show that anglers should be careful about touching their catch. "In this case, the shark reacted instinctively and bit."

A YOUNG Port Elizabeth angler told yesterday how he was savaged by a two-metre shark as he and friends wrestled with it in the shallows while trying to land it.

Grey High School pupil Luke Parker, 15, was lucky to escape with his life as the shark tore into his legs, leaving several gaping wounds.

He was enjoying his annual holiday in Plettenberg Bay with his long- time friend Guy Moorcroft when the drama unfolded.

Back at home in Mill Park yesterday, he was still in pain and walking gingerly due to his 45 stitches. But he was in good spirits and happy to recount the dramatic chain of events.

On Wednesday, he and Guy and another friend, Ricardo do Pinheiro, all going into Grade 10, went fishing off the Lookout Beach rocks.

“We were going to target sharks, so we were using steel traces and mullet heads for bait.

“We went there at about 5pm and, at about 8pm, Guy hooked something big. At first we thought it was a giant stingray, because it was very strong but quite sluggish. Guy fought it for one and a half hours from the rocks right across the Beacon Isle beach.”

Halfway across the beach, some helpful onlookers shone a spotlight out onto the water and they realised it was a ragged-tooth shark.

Eventually, opposite the NSRI headquarters, Moorcroft managed to reel his big catch into the shallows. Worried that the line was going to snap and certain that the shark must be exhausted by this stage, Parker charged in and grabbed it by the tail.

But it wriggled free, hinting at the trouble to come. The shark was about two metres long, they realised, and probably weighed more than 100kg.

Parker retreated, but then the line snapped and Moorcroft charged in and grabbed the shark by the tail. His two friends were at his side, up to their thighs in the night-time surf.

Parker said he was still unaware there could be trouble.

“The shark was obviously tired. Although the line had snapped, it was just lying there in the surf. We didn‘t think it would bite.”

The shark thought differently, however. As a wave washed across them, it whipped around and grabbed Luke‘s left knee.

“It didn‘t hurt straight away. I just couldn‘t believe it was happening to me. I shouted and started to run out. I remember Guy trying to pull it away from my leg. But it had hold of my shorts and was pulling me down.

“I think I fell over in the water, but somehow I managed to make it to the shore. I was in complete shock.”

The NSRI, meanwhile, were already scrambling to the rescue. Luke was picked up and carried into their emergency medical room. A doctor at hand stabilised his bleeding and treated him for shock. He was then driven to the doctor‘s rooms where the wounds, to his left and right knee and right thigh and hip, were stitched.

Luke‘s mother, Jenny Parker, said she and her husband Brett had been at a restaurant in PE when she received a call on her cellphone.

“It was the NSRI and they just had time to say ‘your son‘s been bitten by a shark but he‘s fine‘, before the phone signal cut out. We immediately got hold of the Moorcrofts who confirmed the incident but said everything was all right.”

Luke was due to come back on the bus today but she drove through to fetch him instead. “One bite just missed his groin artery. So he‘s very lucky.”

Ironically, Luke and his friends had intended releasing the shark. “I don‘t think you should keep sharks, especially. I believe it‘s cruel and environmentally it would be wrong.”

NSRI station commander Ray Farnham, who saw the attack, said: “This was the instinctive and natural reaction of the shark defending itself. Anglers are warned not to try to touch or grab sharks.”